Jamming

A Beat Away From My Heart (Reach Out) is a new (old) song that I recorded at JL Studios in downtown Toronto in October 2007 (thanks to my lovely wife for that Christmas present in 2006) . Jeffrey at JL Studios mixed it up nice and in spite of my singing, I think it’s a catchy tune.

Many thanks to Jeff Russo for picking a lead and laying some backing vocals… Now, can I get it published? Check it out in my ReverbNation player above…

This is a nice article contained in the always-helpful songwriting resource at the Muses Muse website. One of the suggestions/tips is to:

Schedule time with yourself for your songwriting, collaborating and rehearsing. Keep these dates with yourself and others as sacred appointments!

That’s really the crux of the matter. When Jeff and I had scheduled jamming/collaborating sessions, the music was flowing a lot easier than now when I’m looking at my home recording and NOT setting aside the time for it that I should…

Rogers Cable here in Canada has introduced Karaoke on Demand for those who like to sing at home… There’s quite a large selection (from Achy Breaky Heart to You’re The One That I Want) so hook up your mic and sing to your heart’s content…

If you don’t have a digital cable receiver, and you get one (soon I would think), you’d also be eligible for a mic from Rogers (500 are available)…

The shower isn’t the only place you can sing like a rock star. PersonalTV from Rogers introduces The Karaoke Channel On Demand. Get free, unlimited access to hundreds of your favourite sing-along tracks anytime you want, with new songs added each month. Whether you want a solo practice session or you’re having a party, centre stage is now in your living room with The Karaoke Channel On Demand.

If you have a digital box, you have The Karaoke Channel On Demand for FREE. Go to Channel 100 and become a rock star!

You’ll find The Karaoke Channel On Demand in the ‘Music’ section on Channel 100. Use your remote control to scroll through songs and find your favourite tunes. Sing as many songs as you like, as many times as you want. And best of all, new songs are added each month, so you always have a fresh selection of tunes to sing.

Sing your Heart Out with The Karaoke Chnnale On Demand on Channel 100.

Well we had some fun at Boston Pizza last night! The place was packed (all of Jeffie’s friends and family attending, along with a rather large and inebriated group of golfers coming from a company tournament). Jeff sure knows how to work the crowd as you can see above (that’s him being Elvis by the way).

He had a lot of fun in the earlier sets with his kids and their friends there. The little ones danced around the stage. Afterward (read, after dark when all the kids were gone) there was no shortage of drunken requests coming from the patio patrons and Jeff quickly obliged.

I came with my guitar, as you can see below, and we did play my Butterfly and Scotch song, but in the end, it was Jeffie’s night and I sat down and listened… And now that he’s got another notch for a paid gig, and now that he played his original tune last night (Cultural Genocide), I hope he joins SOCAN with me…

Great show man! But while I may not have been needed much on stage, let’s just say it was a good thing I came though (certain amp issues and broken strings, stuff like that).

It was great to see Petie and Rico too (and Dave) and to scarf some free food (thank you golfers!). Ci vedimes…

Well, Jeff and I got together on Tuesday night for an “off” night… we were both tired and had both finished working late, and that came out in our playing. On top of it all, the computer wasn’t agreeing with us either… BUT at least we were able to lay down a cool riff that Jeff came up with, that I’m hoping to add lyrics too and co-write a song…

A TIP for those of you with home recording software (I have Sonar 6 on my laptop): If Windows XP wants to reboot after it’s downloaded and installed some updates, LET IT! Everything came out distorted and off-time as the little message kept popping up telling me that XP needed to reboot and I kept ignoring it… I guess with Sonar already opened, something that XP’s update service installed starting sharing some resources or memory that Sonar was already using… anyway, I’ve filed this away as “Lesson learned…”

Well, it’s been a while… but I have an acoustic door in my basement now and Jeffie came by to lay down some tracks… felt really good to get back into the recording/playing thing… Now, I’m going to work on setting some songs up to be recorded the way I hear them…

Well, Jeffie and I got together last night for a jam session. Jeff picked some very cool leads and alternating rhythm guitar parts to my simple layout for one song we worked on (She’s My Favourite Place). I’ll loop some of the leads and lay down some vocals and bass to complete it…

I also had worked on Jeff’s song “Hanging On”. I added a cello part that I think Jeff really liked. He said I should post it for some feedback, and I’ll think I’ll do just that on Mues Muse (with Jeff’s permission, of course).

Jeff and I got together last night for another jam session… Instead of fixing up Feel Like A…. (which I’ve been neglecting to do), I played him my WIP – She’s My Favourite Place… and we laid down a couple of tracks for a song Jeffie penned (Hanging On). I’m going to add a bass line to his song and he’s going to add a lead to mine and hopefully we can wrap those up next week…

So, Jam Session #3 happened… we laid down some vocals to Feel Like A… (but I had to re-do them tonite). Jeff had picked a very good lead before, and he picked a new one for the Bridge instrumental (well, an old one that we used last year). Jeffie mentioned how the song was being “built”, how we were adding “layers”. I think that’s cool… I’ve written the songs, and they’ve always been complete in my head… now I just have to “layer” them for others to hear them the way I do.

I’m a glutton for punishment, so I’ve once again posted a song of mine on the messageboard at MusesMuse. That’s where you’ll find critiques of the song, and this is where you can find Feel Like A… on my Soundclick site…

So Jeff and I were jamming again last night. It was very productive… Jeff has a great ear and picked out a nice solo for Feel Like A… I’m going to re-do the guitar rhythm riff for the song… we both liked the drums I’ve put in for the tune and the basic bass riff, which I’ll perfect and loop into it… then Jeff can add his solo and we can hopefully do vocals next week… stay “tuned” for the completed tune…